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The Qatar Foundation, which will host the firstWorld Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in November, today announced the six2009 WISE Award winners of its Innovative Education Practice Awards.

The WISE Awards capture the spirit and ethos of Qatar Foundation's new internationaleducational initiative and aim to showcase, at a worldwide level, pioneeringeducation-related projects that foster distinctive, cross-educational collaboration.For this first edition, the contest was intended to reward concrete achievementsacross three categories, aligned with the Summit's main themes: pluralism,sustainability and innovation.

The two-tier selection process involved a 15-member jury of internationally-renownedexperts short-listing 48 projects, which were then reviewed by an international juryof 11 of the world's leading experts in pluralism, sustainability and innovation.

Entrants stood out from the four corners of the globe (Africa: 109, Asia/Oceania:91, Europe: 80, North America: 55, Middle East: 34, Central and South and America:25), with the majority of applications having an international dimension andapplication, further underlining the WISE Awards as a truly global initiative.

"The level of entries received for the first edition of the WISE Awards has helpedto elevate this first initiative of the World Innovation Summit for Education, tothe international stage. The submissions received give us a glimpse into theinsightful and high-quality debates on education we can expect in Doha this Novemberduring WISE," said Dr. Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, Chairman of WISE, Vice President ofEducation, Qatar Foundation and Chairman of the WISE Awards International Jury,praising the effort and participation of all applicants.

The six laureates will be honoured at the first ever World Innovation Summit forEducation, taking place in Doha from November 16th-18th. Each of the winners willbe awarded a prize of $20,000 and present their projects before an audience of 1,000leading international influencers during a gala dinner to be held on November 17th.